Amount of money spent on christmas

lizbob

Kandipandi wrote: »

We have four kids aged 10 - 14 and we spend £350 on each child, they got an increase this year.
If there is something they want up to that value we get it, if they are not sure what they want (the eldest ones) they can be given cash to save for later in the year to spend as they wish.
When they were younger it was much less, but then we had much less to give and now we have more it's not a problem.

I know this may seem excessive but I cut back all year to enable us to do this for them. We dont buy them stuff every week they dont get expensive clothes or computer games each month, they get a small amount of pocket money and christmas is when they get the things they want. If they want a new coat and the £10 coat I find is not good enough they can have an expensive coat for christmas - thats how we work it in our house and it has worked well. Plus we dont have spolied brats, we have well balanced grateful children who understand that things have to be worked for and saved up for and see the fruits of our labour at Christmas.

thats exactly how it worked in my family and i grew up gratefull and appreciative of what i've got!

pelirocco

My mum would get a box with a lid ( the sort copier paper comes in ) wrap it in Christmas paper and fill it with items such as crayons , coloured paper , sticky labels , small cheap games etc . My kids loved that and the present would last them for months as they always found something new to play with

jamespir

my parents limted ours to 50£ beacuse there was 4 of us

i spend abou the same on my child and hes always happy

jamespir

poet123 wrote: »

:eek:

Me too;)

They get more expensive with age, we have a Laptop, Iphone, touch Ipod on this years agenda:eek:

put your foot down and tell them to geta job

Rummer

We spend as little as possible by bargain hunting and thinking very carefully about what people would like. In relation to food we buy a few bits and pieces every month on the run up to xmas, things that are on special and store them at my parents so we are not tempted!

LouBlue

I can't remember how much sis spent on my niece and nephew each when they were little, but they get £75 each now, they are 17 and 14 now. It's been that amount for the past 2 or 3 years and she doesn't increase it just because they are a year older. They are more than happy with that amount, they have never asked for anymore.

SugarSpun

I've spent just over £500 on Christmas, in total.

This includes gifts for 2 parents, 1 brother, 5 good friends, 1 dog, 1 husband and 1 baby, who will be 4.5 months old come Christmas Day.

It also includes three cases of wine (don't judge us :rotfl:), all the non-fresh Christmas food, two emergency gifts (chocolate boxes) and chocolates for my parents' neighbours on both sides.

The baby's getting two gifts from Argos 2 for £15, plus a sleepsuit for overnight and a Santa suit for the daytime. I may add a rattle if I see one, but perhaps not.

I went so overboard on the amount of everyone else's gifts through careful shopping that I'm going to cull it all for next year's birthdays and the start of Christmas Shopping 2010.

I made back £446 on Quidco through cashback, and £45 Amazon vouchers from dooyoo.co.uk. I've bought a lot of stuff, but I've done it carefully so Christmas is costing about £35 in actual cash.

Kandipandi

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

I find it very interesting how differently people manage their respective family finances.

I spend a lot more than £10 on winter coats (I noticed how cheap and lacking in function all the girls coats were in Tesco's only yesterday), but would spend considerably less than £350 on each child at Christmas.

Our eldest lost a 70 quid coat last year so that put paid to expensive winter coats :eek:

strawberry_laces

DS1 - DSi and a Blackberry Pearl.
DS2 - £150.00 and assorted stuff he's picked from the Argos Catalogue - £200-£250
DD1 around £50.00 the reason she is getting less is that she's not even 2 yo, she has toys coming out of every orifice and she dosen't need a thing more
DP around £200.00 on clothes
MIL and FIL -£25.00
Mother -£50.00
Neice and 2 nephews £20.00 each normally cash unless they want a game for their console

so its about £1000.00 :eek:

Christ alive I didnt realise it was this much.

Because i buy things throughout the year and put money aside throughout the year it dosent seem like this amount.

Oh dear:( I think I might have to revise this.

Thta's not including the 'nice' booze for us. The Chivas Regal, The Convosier, Smirnoff, 12 yo single malt and the rest of the booze I only buy once a year.


The food too

Morglin

The thing that winds me up is that my grandchildren literally have a room full of expensive techno stuff on Xmas Day (their dad is one of a huge family and they all buy for the kids as well as the rest of us), and yet by about 11am, they are still moaning they are bored!

But, there appears to be a revival in old fashioned board games, so perhaps that's the answer.;)

Lin:rolleyes: